Vitamins For Dummies

468 Pages·1999·6.06 MB·English

by  Christopher Hobbs

Vitamins For Dummies
by Christopher Hobbs, L.Ac,
and Elson Haas, M.D.

Vitamins For Dummies‚
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Copyright © 1999 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
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About the Authors
Christopher Hobbs, L.Ac., is a fourth-generation herbalist and botanist —
his grandmother and great-grandmother were professional herbalists, and his
father and great-uncle were professors of botany — with over 30 years
experience with herbs. He studied acupuncture, Chinese herbs, and Chinese
medicine at Michael and Lesley Tierra’s East-West Acupuncture Program,
Five Branches Institute of Traditional Medicine in Santa Cruz, and The
Hangzhou School of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Hangzhou, China,
earning his license in acupuncture in 1995. In 1989, he founded the American
School of Herbalism in Santa Cruz, California (with Michael Tierra, O.M.D.,
L.Ac.) to educate professional and lay persons in the safe use of medicinal
plants. He is currently the director of the Christopher Hobbs Clinic of
Phytotherapy and Acupuncture, as a licensed primary health care provider in
California.
In 1985, Christopher co-founded the American Herbalists Guild, the only
national U.S. organization for professional herbalists, and along with David
Winston, is a senior member on the admissions committee. As a consultant to
the herb and natural foods industry, he was vice president and a board of
trustee member of the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) for
seven years, has formulated many nationally-sold products, and is a member
of a number of top companies. In 1984, he started a line of herbal products
now known as Rainbow Light Herbal Systems. Christopher has acted as
director of herbal formulations for Rainbow Light since 1984. He currently
consults for the pharmaceutical and natural products industry and is a major
contributor to the successful herbal Web site, www.allherb.com. Christopher
is a member of the Society for Medicinal Plants, the Society for Economic
Botany, and the Society for Ethnobiology. He has lectured at Yale and
Stanford Medical Schools; is a regular teacher at the University of California,
Santa Cruz; and has taught at numerous schools, conventions, and symposia
throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe. Christopher
regularly contributes a clinic column in Herbs for Health, and his articles
have appeared in HerbalGram, Natural Health, Vegetarian Times, Let’s Live,
and other national health magazines. Christopher is currently on the advisory
boards of the American Botanical Council, United Plant Savers, Let’s Live
magazine, Herbs for Health, and other organizations and magazines. He owns
one of the most extensive private libraries on medicinal plants, with over
6,000 volumes, including herb books that date from the sixteenth century. He
is in the process of developing a medicinal plant preserve and educational
center called the Living Farmacy.
Elson Haas, M.D., has been in medical practice for over 25 years and has
helped develop the field he refers to as Integrated Medicine. He is the
founder and director of the Preventive Medical Center of Marin, an integrated
health care facility in San Rafael, California, where he specializes in
Nutritional Medicine and Detoxification. He is also the author of five
previous books on health and nutrition: Staying Healthy With the Seasons,
Staying Healthy With Nutrition, A Diet for All Seasons, The Detox Diet, and
The Staying Healthy Shopper’s Guide.
After his graduation from the University of Michigan Medical School in
1972, Elson received his further training in Northern California, where he has
since resided. After his internship, he began further studies in many health-
related fields — nutrition, herbology, Oriental medicine, exercise physiology,
body therapies, and mind-body medicine — fulfilling his goal to learn
something about health and healing after so many years of studying disease.
Over the last two decades, Dr. Haas has incorporated, or to use a better word,
“integrated,” these many healing disciplines into his family medical practice.
He wrote about this process in his first book, Staying Healthy with the
Seasons, published in 1981 and now in its 22nd printing.
With the great progress, awareness, and acceptance of nutritional and
alternative medicine, Haas has been in the midst of this rapidly growing field.
The wide availability and utilization of the thousand of products now
available on the shelves of many types of stores is what makes Vitamins For
Dummies essential reading to assist people in interpreting this complex field
in order to achieve the great health and longevity benefits of supplementation.
Dr. Haas travels and teaches nationally and appears on numerous radio
shows. He is a professional consultant for many health writers and
magazines, including Natural Health, Women’s World, and Let’s Live. His
upcoming book, published by Ballantine Books, is titled The False Fat Diet,
about food allergies and reactions and their association to body swelling and
weight. Elson lives on a farm in Northern California where he raises food and
animals (llamas, ducks, guinea pigs — his idol is Dr. Doolittle, after all!) with
his wife and their two children.
Contact Dr. Elson Haas and sign up for his free newsletter and receive other
health information at his Web site, www.elsonhaas.com
Dedication
I dedicate this book to Beth, my partner in crime and a few legal activities
(like writing this book) as well. Beth has supported me through tough times
and shared in the joy of many fun and loving times, too. Our mutual love of
plants, mushrooms, walking in the woods, and a life and home in nature with
wild animals and plants brings extra beauty to each of our lives. We make a
good team, and we still are able to be kids together and keep our sense of
humor about life, at least most of the time. The miracle to me is that Beth has
been able to put up with all my eccentricities (a nice way of putting it) and
still keeps loving me. For this I’m forever grateful and blessed.
- Christopher Hobbs
I want to thank my wife Tara and our children for supporting me and allowing
me to take the time needed on the computer and phone to complete Vitamins
For Dummies. Even though there always seems to be so much to do, they
remind me how important it is to take time to play, love one another, and
generally keep the balance in my life.
- Elson Haas
Author’s Acknowledgments
I want to express my appreciation to Stephen Brown, N.D., my long-time
friend, and scientific advisor for much of this work. His incredible knowledge
of the medical and nutritional literature is amazing, and even more, his ability
to evaluate the quality and bottom line of many diverse studies was extremely
valuable in the writing of this book. We wanted to write a book that was fun
to use, easy to read, accessible and practical, and more, could clearly separate
the supplements that really have some demonstrated effects from the ones
mainly promoted by manufacturers for profit, but that had no history of use or
proven benefits. Vitamins For Dummies comes much closer to this ideal goal
because of his efforts.
My partner Beth contributed greatly to this project in every way as editor,
writer, compiler, and researcher.
I want to also acknowledge my co-author, Dr. Elson Haas. Elson has been a
complete joy to work with. He helped keep the project on track and was
always encouraging us with frequent communication to make sure we were
meeting our time and content commitments. My belief that the two worlds of
modern medicine and natural healing and herbalism are coming together is
supported by the similarity of our philosophical and practical approaches to
healing. Of course, Elson has lived and written about natural healing and
herbal medicine for many years, and we both believe that whole foods, a
good diet, regular exercise, and other good health habits always come first
before supplements, no matter how helpful they may be.
Western medicine is then saved for crisis care and technological advances,
not for maintaining health. That’s up to each of us in our daily acts!
I also give humble thanks to my teachers, Paul C. Bragg, and my mother, Eli,
who taught me much about nutrition and health.